Yes! Many plants that have evolved with fire have traits that make them more flammable! For example, the long needles of longleaf pine are very flammable - their chemistry makes them more likely to ignite and burn. And the way they land on the understory creates a nice continuous layer of fuel that also allows oxygen to get in (a needed ingredient of fire). There are also fire-loving oaks that have flammability traits that encourage fire. The Mutch Hypothesis captures a lot of these ideas. We are still learning about the many fire traits that plants can have but we definitely see that our fire loving plants tend to encourage fire!

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Sure! You can get my email address from my website here: https://sites.google.com/view/monicarother/home

Generally, how many trees are needed to have a useful sample to conduct meaningful research in this area?

Can you determine differences between historic wildfires and indigenous cultural burning in any way?

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I am a student at NCSU taking FOR531. Since you mentioned forest recovery after burns, are you finding that forests recover quicker or slower than they used to with today's ongoing climate change issue?

Wow, that's cool. Thanks.

But does it mean that you should cut those old trees down to see the rings and check for fire marks?

Good question! As you are hinting to, a monoculture forest like a plantation isn’t going to have as much biodiversity in the understory as a more natural forest. In terms of how rapidly the ecosystem recovers following fire, it will depend on the species that were present within and adjacent to the site prior to the fire. If it’s longleaf pine tree, they will probably survive the fire. However, in more natural ecosystems, the longleaf would survive and the many understory plants (grasses, forbs, woody plants) would also survive and resprout after the burn. In pine plantations, site preparation treatments are often used to minimize vegetative that can compete with pines. These treatments tend to reduce understory diversity and cover (that’s kind of the point). Similarly, densely planted pine plantations tend to have little understory diversity due to a lack of sunlight available at the forest floor.

This question depends on where you look, but in many places, we aren’t yet getting enough fire on the ground! For example, fire history studies in longleaf pine across the Southeast are showing that fires occurred every 1-4 years. Although prescribed burn practitioners are burning at that frequency in some places, many other areas remain unburned, some for decades or longer! The fire scar information is generally telling us we need to grow our prescribed fire programs!

The seasonality piece is a hard one to answer. In some places, we see in the fire-scar record a lot of dormant season fires that were ignited by people. However, in other locations, we see a strong record of lightning fire. These fires tended to happen in early spring and summer. I generally think prescribed burn practitioners should aim to increase their growing season burning. However, I do understand that managers face many challenges to doing so and it’s definitely key that we get frequent fire on the ground, even if that means burning at times of year that are inconsistent with the lightning fire regime. So in short - more growing season fire but also keep up with the other burns!

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Can you fake tree rings?

I am Vanadeep Kaluvagunta, who is taking the Wildland Fire Science (FOR 531) at NC State University this spring 2023 semester. I lived in Los Angeles from 2019 to 2021. I always was puzzled about the unabated frequent occurrence of bush fires every year despite having the best firefighters and meticulous mechanisms in place. Is it only due to the prevalent dry conditions (Santa Ana winds, etc.) or they are deliberately ignited by miscreants?

Hi, I'm a USFS firefighter in the NWCG Rx-310 class right now, and as part of it, we have to send a scientist who has been involved in fire some interview questions to answer. Do you mind if I email you these questions?

Since many tree species rely on fire for germination or to clear out competitors and encourage growth, do any of the pyrophytic plants express traits that encourage fire?

Hi,

I am Amir, a PhD student whose research is focused on wildfires air quality impacts (I have started the research 2 weeks ago :D)

From the history of past fires, and comparing them to current status, is it possible to say that things are getting worse? (wildfire related)

Hello professor! What was the most challenging real-time fire situation that you have faced? How did you mitigate that using your expertise in the subject?

Daenerys Targaryen and her family members, much like the iconic longleaf pine of the Southeast and the ponderosa pine of the western US, likely have a thick outer bark that insulates them from low-intensity fires.

Do forests that are more diverse in plant species regenerate from fire better than monoculture forests e.g. plantations?

What has your research revealed in terms of the differences between natural fire regimes and modern prescribed fire regimes? Are fire practitioners burning enough and at the right time of year?

For more AMAs on this topic, subscribe to r/IAmA_Science, and check out our other topic-specific AMA subreddits here.

In terms of published studies, the oldest fires I have found so far are in the 1600s. However, we have work underway in Florida that shows fire activity in the 1500s! We are limited by how long the trees live. However, if we collect a very old stump that was cut down over a 100 years ago, we can get back further in time. In some places, with longer-lived tree species, fire history can go back beyond a millenia!

Can you tell me why Targaryens dont burn in fire??

Yes, it can be related to global warming. We can study the relationship between fire and climate in the past and then make some inferences about what might happen in the future. In some places, changing climate means that fires are more intense or larger.